Technology Tuesday: Shape Poems

I have always loved Shape Poems but found it so difficult to form the words in the correct shape.  I started looking for an app that might do it for me and came up with something close.

With 2nd grade this week, I read them some shape poems from Come to My Party by Heidi Roemer.

We talked about how these poems rhymed, but not all poems do.  We talked about how poems describe things and can be about any topic and then I had them open the Read, Write Think Theme Poem app on the iPads.  

This app has different themes to choose from.  We picked Nature poems.  Students wrote a poem about the sun, flowers, rain, trees, moon, sun, leaves or fish.  Then before we saved it, we copied the words of the poem using the select all and then copy feature.

We then opened the website Tagul.  

WARNING: This website requires a login.  I used my library google account, but I went in ahead of time and on each iPad logged in and created a shortcut on the home screen of the iPad to make it easy for the 2nd graders during the lesson.  There are also a bunch of different features on this website, so I could suggest playing around with it yourself before jumping in and doing it with a class.

We created a new cloud and imported our words that we had copied using the paste feature,  Then click VISUALIZE and wal-ah our words were in the shape of a... cloud.  We then looked at the different shapes available on the website and picked one that went with out poem.  Tap visualize again and then poof... our words were inside a shape that matched the poem. 

  

       

  

You'll notice the words in the colored shape poems are not in order of the poem but we were still excited about what we had done!   

The Amazing Jeff Mack

WOW!! What a day!

Today we welcomed Jeff Mack, author and illustrator of many, many books.

He had 5th grade completely engaged and quieter than I have ever seen them for an ENTIRE hour!

He showed them in a real video (sped up) how his illustrations come about from taping the paper down to his drawing board to taking a thumb drive of the illustrations to the copy shop so he can see how the "book" will turn out.  He also discussed how illustrators have to be sure to match the style of the drawing to the characters. The students brought notebooks and pencils and he showed them how to draw Clueless McGee.  We are not sure if this Clueless McGee is ready for Halloween or in some kind of show...

Since 4th graders in Texas have to take a state writing test, his presentaiton to them was more about the writing process and his steps for writing.  He was sure to draw with them also... a Steph-Curry-loving-hippo.

With K,1st, 2nd and 3rd, he talked about practicing and not giving up when you don;t get it right the first time.  Then he read a book with each group. You can definitely tell that these drawing came from the lower grades... only random thought came from a 3rd grader who wanted bear to hold a "cup of hot chocolate that smells like broccoli"?  I know... I'm sure there is a reason for that, but we didn't go there.

                  

All in all, it was a great day.  Students and teachers enjoyed his visit.  I highly recommend Jeff if you are looking for an author to visit your school.

                   

Technology Tuesday: Augmented Reality + Writing

I have been wanting to use Augmented Reality in a lesson for a while and finally figured out a way to do it.  I am using a Chromville coloring page to inspire writing in my 2nd graders.  Chromville is a website and an app.  Print the coloring pages from the website and thenuse the app to make them "come to life".

I printed off a page from the character, Zoe's stash.  I gave the students about 10-15 minutes to color and told them to be thinking about a story that could go along with the picture of Zoe swimming. 

When they finished coloring, we used the iPads and the Chromville app to make the picture in an augmented reality picture of Zoe swimming and diving with the fish.

The students are super excited to see the picture come alive.  It is always so fun to see their reactions.  The hardest part is keeping the iPad still for the 3 seconds it takes for the camera to read the picture. 

Within the app there is a camera button so the students took a picture of their 3D picture.  Then we opened the Write About This App (we used the free version which only allows you save one story, but there is a paid version where you can save multiple times).

This app allows you to import a picture and then write a story to go along with it.  The students put imported their picture and began writing.

When they finished, the can save it to the gallery and email or save it to the camera roll.  THis was a fun way to change up writing.  I think using the Augmented Reality picture helped to engage them a little more than just a promt.  

Technology Tuesday: eNewspaper

My school has it's first eNewspaper written by students.  The idea started last year, when four 4th grade students asked the principal if they could start a school newspaper.  She told them if they could find a teacher that would sponsor the club, she was all for it.

The girls got one of the 4th grade teachers to agree to sponsor it and myself and another 5th grade teacher hopped on board too.  We met with the girls last year to discuss what they were thinking and to formulate a plan for the club.  

The sponsors met with our technology specialist and decided that the best format to use was edublogs.  We set up shared google folders and decided what types of stories/sections we would publish.  

Our first meeting with the students was September 17th.  

We talked about the process, brainstormed ideas for stories and assigned trios of kids (reporter, photographer and writer) to work on certain subjects.  At our next meeting 2 weeks later, the students brought the results of their interviews and set to work writing their stories.  And then finally last week, we got the students together again and edited the stories on the screen together and published our first edition.  

Woodstone eNews

There are some things we want to change for next time, but overall we are pretty pleased with the effort.  There was a lot of behind the scenes work done by the sponsors in between the meetings with the students, but I'm sure that will become more integrated as the students become more familiar with edublogs and how to actually publish.  

We plan to publish at the end of each 9 weeks, so our next issue will hopefully be before the winter break.  

Technology Tues: Kate Messner Google Hangout

Writing, Writing, Writing... It is definitely an area that our school is concentrating on every year. Especially our 4th grade students that have to take a state writing assessment.  

Today, some of my 4th grade classes participated in Kate Messner's Google Hangout sponsored by We Are Teachers.  

She was specifically discussing the writing process of her Ranger In Time series.  This series is about Ranger, a search and rescue dog, who travels back in time to help people.  

Kate was so open about showing different parts of her work.  She held up her writer's notebook with her brief phrases about ideas.  She showed a long piece of paper where she collects all her ideas about a story in one place before she starts.  

The students were shocked to hear that it took almost 2 years to write and publish a book!  They were also glad to hear that even professional writer's have their papers marked up by editors.  

Our students were also surprised to hear one of the guest classes ask a question about what kind of "leads" Kate like to use in her books.  That class was in a totally different state and they called the beginning of their stories "leads" too!  

It sure does make more of an impact on kids when they hear that students in other states and professional authors go through the same writing process that they do... another example of the power of being connected.  

Reading Buddies

I love reading buddy day!  As one of my 4th grade teachers noted, "Our whole school shuts down once a month to do this... It is fun to see how excited the little kids get, and how motivated the big kids are to be a role model".  She's right.  As I see the kids walking through the halls, books in hand on their way to their buddy class, I ask, "Where are you going?" and they respond back with a huge smile, "To read with our buddies!".

2nd and 5th grader sharing a love of fact finding

1st and 4th grader reading Clifford

This year, writing is a school wide focus and so we thought about incorporating some kind of writing into the buddy time.

A kinder student dictates to her 3rd grade buddy her favorite thing about the story they read.